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Chapter 366: Unidentified Zone (1)

“……A gap in space?”

In the Master of the Magic Tower’s room.

Sasha, not quite awake yet, rubbed her eyes and asked back.

“Yeah, you remember the 13th floor, right?”

“Huaaap, yes.”

When the gap in space on the 13th floor was closed, the aftereffects caused the floor to expand.

Thanks to that, the White Anvil Tribe even managed to install the massive furnace they had so long desired.

Now, they were living far more contentedly than before they had relocated.

“So there were more like that?”

“There were five in total. Since we closed one, that means there are four left now.”

Three existed in the form of hidden spaces like the one on the 13th floor.

And one was structured so that the entire floor itself was a massive gap.

Upon hearing that, Sasha flinched.

“The place where the entire floor is made of spatial magic, could it be…….”

“Right, it’s the 44th floor.”

It was commonly called the Unidentified Zone.

While the 42nd and 43rd floors were used as the elders’ offices and the 45th floor was the grand conference hall,

the 44th floor hadn’t even found a purpose to this day.

“Isn’t it dangerous? That place is forbidden.”

On the 44th floor, not only the stairs but even the mana elevator had its light unlit for that floor alone.

It had been deliberately blocked off.

A floor that exists within the White Tower yet does not exist—entry prohibited through any route whatsoever.

In truth, for a magic tower that had stood for hundreds of years to still have such a floor didn’t make sense, but……

‘There’s no other way.’

It sounded a bit immature, but even he himself had secretly entered it in his previous life without his master knowing.

After wandering through an infinite space, he had been found the next day unconscious on the stairs.

“Can the Master, as you are now close the space on the 44th floor?”

“Probably.”

He was now a fully-fledged Level 7, and above all, he possessed mana close to infinite.

Honestly, even Master Ado from his younger days wouldn’t be able to stand against him now.

Sasha, resting her chin on her hand, fell into deep thought.

“Hmm, certainly…… if those spaces were properly dealt with…… it wouldn’t be bad for the Magic Tower.”

“Not just not bad—it’d actually be good.”

Such a clean expansion was something you couldn’t accomplish even with money.

“Alright, as the Master of the Tower, I’ll permit it!”

Having finally finished her deliberation, Sasha lightly clapped her hands.

“But, can I come along too?”

“You want to come along, Sasha?”

“Is that not allowed?”

“If you’re asking whether it’s allowed or not, there’s no reason to forbid it. However, I’m planning to improve my spatial magic through this task. So if you end up helping…….”

“I understand what you mean.”

Sasha nodded quickly.

“I really won’t do anything. I’ll just stand there with my hands behind my back.”

“Even if it gets dangerous, you have to stick to that.”

“I’ll remember! When are we leaving?”

“As soon as we’re ready?”

“Ah, then just a moment!”

Having gotten permission, Sasha excitedly began packing her things.

“First, since it might be cold, a coat, and emergency rations…… and water…….”

“Wait, stop.”

Oscar looked at the bag that had somehow grown bigger than her upper body and made a baffled expression.

“Sorry, but we don’t need that much luggage.”

“But last time you explained that inside the gap in space was Lake Silvarin.”

“That was then.”

“Then assuming it could be like that again, we should prepare thoroughly.”

“…….”

Looking at her packing, it felt like she was preparing for a picnic.

Oscar shrugged lightly.

They probably wouldn’t use any of it anyway, but if it made her happy, what was the harm?

* * *

The first gap in space was a southern beach.

“Waaah, this is a gap in space? We didn’t move through a portal?”

“Have you been fooled your whole life? The air’s nice.”

“It’s really nice!”

Come to think of it, this was the first time seeing the sea together with Sasha.

Since Sirin was inland, the best they could do was visit large lakes.

‘Even just going to a lake, everyone would jump around in excitement.’

He especially remembered Gilly insisting that something larger than that couldn’t exist and denying the existence of the sea.

Then Lloyd had refuted his point by point, and Gilly stubbornly insisted it was impossible……

In the end, they had concluded that after the war, they would all go see the sea together.

Embarrassingly, he hadn’t been able to keep that promise either.

“Sasha, this isn’t your first time seeing the sea, right?”

“Huh? Of course not.”

She blinked as if hearing a strange question.

“When I was actively taking requests, there wasn’t anywhere I hadn’t been. The sea, underground, snowy mountains, even lava…… if it paid, I went anywhere.”

“Th-that must’ve been tough.”

This master felt sorry.

Feeling awkward, Oscar quickly scanned his surroundings.

‘If it’s like the 13th floor, Master should be nearby…….’

Sure enough.

From the opposite shore, two figures were walking toward them.

“@#$^%”

“^!@#@!”

The two people once again spoke words they couldn’t understand, holding hands tightly.

Sasha, who had been staring at them, asked:

“Is that Ado Vail?”

“Yeah. And the one next to him is his wife.”

It seemed more time had passed compared to when he had seen them on the 13th floor.

They looked about five years older than back then.

Of course, even if they looked like that, their mana prevented aging, so more time had likely passed.

“I’ll be back.”

“Are you going to fight?”

“Who knows? If I try to close the space, he’ll attack.”

That had been the case last time.

If he stayed here with Sasha, they might be attacked together.

So without another word, Oscar moved away and walked along the beach.

As his feet sank into the sand, he felt his master’s wary gaze.

As if saying, ‘To see people here—how unusual.’

The moment that suspicious gaze left his face, Oscar raised his mana.

‘In an instant, grab the thread of space—and pull.’

To be honest, he was a little worried.

Whether he had come too late to close the space.

Whether he had already become too strong to learn anything from confronting his master’s past.

That arrogant thought vanished in less than a second.

“……!”

The thread of space he was pulling transformed like grains of sand and slipped through his fingers.

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‘You can manipulate the thread of space itself like this?’

His eyes widened at the new lesson, but only for a moment—Oscar quickly leapt back.

Shaaack!

A moment later, the very space he had been standing in twisted.

Had he remained there blankly, his entire body would have been warped.

“Definitely different from before.”

The younger master he met on the 13th floor had been Level 6, but now he stood properly at the early stage of Level 7.

Just that difference alone created a tremendous pressure he could feel on his skin.

‘From Level 7 onward, mana increases greatly, allowing the use of most spatial magic.’

Even after using 『Twister』, his master didn’t change expression at all.

That meant he could use attacks of that scale multiple times.

“Looks like you ate a lot of good things when you were young, Master.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than the surging space pressed down over the entire beach.

‘Back on the 13th floor, I always failed when I saw this pattern…….’

Now, things were very different from then.

Without retreating even an inch, Oscar grabbed the thread of space.

“…….”

His master’s gaze slid toward the thread of space—something others couldn’t even see.

Once again, the thread shattered into thousands of pieces and slipped between his fingers.

“But this unworthy disciple happens to be called a genius wherever he goes.”

He had already grasped the principle.

The reason the thread collapsed was because its starting point was cut off, making it ‘something that does not exist.’

‘In that case, what I have to do is the exact opposite.’

Reconnect the severed thread—turn it into a ‘thread that exists.’

The particles that had been scattering between his fingers began to reverse, flowing back as if time itself were rewinding.

As his master’s eyes widened at the sight—

“I learned something good.”

He grabbed the thread and pulled.

The gap in space slowly collapsed.

“…….”

Even as the world crumbled, his master merely looked at his wife with lonely eyes.

* * *

Rumble—!

As the gap in space closed, the tower shook as if an earthquake had struck once again.

However, there was no change on the 19th floor where they stood.

“The 10th floor—the 10th floor area has expanded!”

After quickly scanning the White Tower with mana, Sasha shouted with wide eyes.

“The 10th floor… is that the garden?”

“Yes! It was already an expanded area enhanced with spatial magic, but I never imagined it would grow even more…….”

“Old man Walter will be pleased.”

Of course, he’d be busy for a while filling the expanded land, but he liked planting trees.

“At this point, we could call the 10th floor a forest instead of a garden.”

“If we divide it by themes and open it to visitors, that wouldn’t be bad either.”

That kind of fame would inspire young mages to want to come to the White Tower.

Sasha asked,

“But what exactly happened in that exchange just now? I couldn’t see anything.”

“That’s only natural. Only spatial mages can see the threads of space.”

Oscar kindly explained the exchange he had with his master.

Hearing it, Sasha tilted her head.

“Then…… can Master now create gaps in space too?”

“Hm? Why do you think that?”

“Well, you said you just learned how to cut and reconnect the threads of space themselves. And since you said all space begins from those threads, if you connect them, couldn’t you also create a gap?”

“…….”

Oscar fell into deep thought at the words of his young genius disciple.

She wasn’t wrong.

All space did begin from threads.

If one could manipulate those threads, then in theory, creating a gap should be possible.

‘But this case is a bit different.’

What he had just done wasn’t creating threads.

He had simply pulled nearby threads and ‘attached’ them to the severed starting point.

“Wait, let’s test it.”

Oscar connected a few visible threads of space.

Immediately, space twisted, and a gap that hadn’t existed before was formed.

“Hmm…….”

“It feels a bit off.”

As Sasha said, it felt somewhat off.

A gap had formed, but as a result, the surrounding space had been hollowed out.

Like staring into a bottomless hole, a pitch-black void had opened up.

“What happens if you put your hand in there?”

“Well, I don’t think it’ll end well, so don’t.”

When he released the forcibly stitched threads, space returned to normal.

“Tsk, wait, wait a second.”

Seeing that, something seemed on the verge of surfacing in his mind.

Oscar stroked his chin, sinking into deep thought.

‘In the end, creating a gap in space isn’t possible just by connecting existing threads.’

It was something only possible if one could create new threads of space.

But such a method—his master had never taught him.

‘At the very least, he would’ve hinted that such a method exists, but he didn’t say a word.’

Given his master’s personality, there were likely two reasons.

First, he didn’t want his disciple to ever learn something like that.

Indeed, his master had repeatedly warned him about the dangers of spatial magic, so this was quite likely.

‘And the second reason is…….’

That he had already taught him that method.

Oscar fell into deep contemplation.

‘A spatial mage can see the threads of space that others cannot.’

Even archmages who had reached Level 8 couldn’t see them.

Perhaps because of that, he had been living under the mistaken assumption that he could see ‘all threads.’

‘What if the threads I can see aren’t everything—what if there are more threads I can’t perceive?’

Mana gathered in Oscar’s eyes, and the scenery of the world changed.

A mechanical, desolate landscape composed solely of threads of space.

“…….”

Among those threads, there could be others he did not know.

And he already knew how to find them.

“Let’s go to the next gap.”

Because the answer would lie with his master.

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